Our exhibits show the development of steam
and internal engine, the transition to the internal combustion engine
and its development, also the lateral thinking which developed the
turbine - the steam engine of the 20th century.

Yes, this computer is steam powered - whether
the steam is generated by coal or nuclear fuel is immaterial - a
steam engine turned the alternator to make the electricity to make
your computer work.

Where
is it?

Situated just three hours drive from Sydney
lies one of Australia's more unusual museums. It's at 5833 Ilford
Road, Sofala, in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales.

If you are in a rush, don't come! Our guided
tours take two hours and many visitors stay five hours or more,
enjoying the surroundings while they have a lazy lunch.

The exhibits are set out in seven buildings:
starting with an c1845 horizontal steam engine and an 1866 Marshall
portable engine (believed to be the oldest Marshall product in the
world and the oldest documented portable in Australia) through to
vertical and horizontal engines of the early 1900s. Then to kerosene
diesel (1904) and on to the internal combustion engines of the 1930s,
'40s and '50s, culminating with an English Electric Diesel engine
of 2,200 BHP weighing in at 61 tons.